By Amy Eddings
The Ada village council held a special meeting to take care of personnel issues on Tuesday.
Members approved the hiring of Justin Burris and Chris Kapa as temporary full-time construction and maintenance workers. They’ll be paid $9.62 an hour with no benefits, and the length of their employment will be from Nov. 12 to Jan. 23, 2016.
“We’re four people down in this area,” Mayor David Retterer said. “They’ll be doing leaf pickup and perhaps some snow plowing."
Reterrer said the former employees left for other jobs.
Council members voted to approve their hiring after meeting in executive session to discuss the terms of their employment.
Following the special session, the village council held meetings of its Buildings and Grounds Committee and its Utilities Committee.
Assistant Village Administrator Jamie Hall updated council members on the ongoing plan to refurbish Ada’s pool.
He said the Ohio Department of Natural Resources awarded Ada a $150,000 grant for its pool improvements. The total cost of the pool renovation is currently at $1.45 million dollars. Part of it will need to be financed with a $650,000 loan.
Hall said the village also got a $45,000 grant for a new pool slide. The slide will get new fiberglass and a new gel coating to the slide. The total cost is estimated at $60,000. Hall said the village has budgeted for the $15,000 balance.
Hall told council members that he’ll bring resolutions to them at their next meeting that would authorize Mayor Retterer to enter into agreements with architect Freytag and Assoc. and the ODNR.
As for utilities, Village Administrator Jim Meyer told council members that the village was in receipt of a “not so nice letter” from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about a water line break last August at the Parkview North Trailer Park on E. Lincoln Ave.
“They basically said they now create a hazard for the village because of the possibility of back flow,” said Meyer. Back flow is caused by the loss of water pressure that results from water line breaks. “Contamination could’ve come back from that break and create problems for the rest of our customers."
He told council members he’ll present, at the next council meeting, back flow preventer specifications for their approval. Once that’s given, Hall said he’ll give the information to the trailer park’s property manager and owner so that they can address the issue to EPA’s satisfaction.
Hall said back flow preventers can run as much as $6,000. He said he doesn’t know what will happen if the trailer park’s owner decides not to install one.
“If they refuse, what are our options?” Hall said. “We haven’t talked to EPA or our attorney. Maybe we have to install it. We’ve not done this before."
The committee meetings adjourned with no further action taken. The next regularly-scheduled Ada Village Council meeting is Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m.
